Raphael's authorship in the 'Expulsion of Heliodorus.' - interpretation of court painter Raphael's mural

What about the serpentine pose of the woman in the Heliodorus? We must remember that unlike these other female figures she embodies the final moment in a series of spectatorial acts. Although she looks rightward, her arms and hands extend leftward. In reaching back they metaphorically "embrace" the two other women. Her left hand is juxtaposed with the leg of the first, while her right points toward the upturned face of the second (with this latter gesture also "hugging" this figure's contours). Culminating the series, the serpentine woman embodies a synthesis of the two prior moments of spectatorship. Her lower body is angled principally toward the altar area. Like the first woman, she does not directly see the secret religious activity but her body "knows" it. Also, her body spirals upward while her right hand points up to the upturned face of the second widow, who prays toward the heavens. The serpentine woman is also cognizant of divine matters.

The picturing of successive stages of spectatorship or cognition was not uncommon in Renaissance pictures. In Piero della Francesca's Resurrection of Christ from the third quarter of the quattrocento, the four foreground figures can be read left to right as sequential stages in the comprehension of the Body [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 22 OMITTED]. In Raphael's own Transfiguration, the three apostles on the mount likewise embody a leftward unfolding of the recognition of the transfigured Christ [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 23 OMITTED].(71) What differs in the Heliodorus, however, is that the final stage in the series is not a mere completion or terminus of a linear process but refers back to and subsumes both prior moments into itself in order to move forward toward dialectical resolution. Moreover, the first woman-spectator in the series has two orphan children, one of whom looks heaven-ward while the other steps and looks rightward. These children seem to adumbrate the subsequent two moments in the series. All three moments of spectatorship are contained in the first.(72)

Embodying the final moment in the series of spectatorial acts, the twisting figure witnesses the falling of Heliodorus. She incorporates both prior stages of the unfolding spectatorship into her own, so that her mode of vision can be defined as a synthesis of inner and outer seeing. Her perception of the sudden appearance of the avengers is informed by knowing insight into their divine origin. Through her corporeal eyes she can see their miraculous nature. Her spiraling upward expresses her "elevated" mode of perception - not, however, by continuing toward a celestial being, but instead by abruptly terminating its ascent at the level of her head as she suddenly and surprisingly finds herself witness to the three avengers. She is able to see the heavenly essence of these earthbound agents.(73)

Theater

The setting for the spectators at right and the historical action at left is distinct from that of the temple proper. The multicolored, patterned floor of the foreground abuts the raised grayish floor of the temple, so that the temple serves as a screen for the figural activities in the foreground. Although the temple has both innovative and archaeological features,(74) it thus functions much like a prospettiva theatrical backdrop, a contemporary rendition of the ancient scenae frons.(75) The boys clinging to the temple column provide a sure sign of the spectacle viewed: such figures constitute a motif to be found in frontispieces of printed editions of ancient Roman comedies, the earliest being the Terence issued in Venice in 1497.(76) Beginning in the mid-1480s classical Roman drama was revived in papal Rome.(77) The setting of the Heliodorus would have reminded the papal court of theater and their participation in its spectacle.